Mean Streets of Gadgetzan: Comparing Gadgetzan in Warcraft and Hearthstone

Mean Streets of Gadgetzan, Hearthstone's latest expansion, launched on Thursday, December 1st! As Gadgetzan was originally a city in WoW, we thought it would be interesting to compare both versions of the city.

Gadgetzan in Hearthstone is much more of a cosmopolitan city than in WoW; it would be fun to see some of the Hearthstone factions make their way to WoW. Perhaps the leaders of each faction could each be a boss!

For info about Mean Streets of Gadgetzan, check out our guides on Hearthhead.

Gadgetzan in WoW

Gadgetzan is the headquarters for the Steamwheedle Cartel and one of the first neutral capital cities in WoW. It is the main city in Tanaris, a zone for level 45-50 players, which is also home to the Höhlen der Zeit, the dungeon Zul'Farrak, and a variety of pirates.

Gadgetzan is a goblin-run city in the middle of the desert featuring a neutral Auction House and mechanical decorations like doorways made out of gears and wrenches. At the center of the city is a Mad Max-style Thunderdrome with its own series of quests like Donnerkuppel: Erbitterter Zweikampf and tribute NPCs like Katrina Turner and Dr. Haudenlukas.

Gadgetzan in Hearthstone

Gadgetzan in Hearthstone is more cosmopolitan, with a thriving downtown that includes the First Bank of Gadgetzan and the Gadgetzan Museum of Ancient Artifacts. In Mean Streets of Gadgetzan, goblins play a major role, but they are supplemented by additional factions like the Jade Lotus and the Kabal.

The articles in Gadgetzan Gazettes refer to a former era where the town was a sleepy desert town, but that time is no more. For more information, check out Blizzard's Gadgetzan Gazettes:

Jade Lotus and Pandaria

The Jade Lotus is a group comprised of various races from Pandaria: Pandaren, Mantid, Mogu statues, hozen, virmen. The Gadgetzan Museum of Ancient Artifacts is officially run by Madam Goya but is secretly a front for the Jade Lotus organization, managed by Aya Blackpaw.

The Mogu in Mists of Pandaria were known for creating armies of statues that come to life. The raid zone Mogu'shangewölbe allows players to explore the remains of this empire and their armies like The Stone Guard, reflected in cards like Jade Lightning.

The Mantid were introduced in Mists of Pandaria via the Die Klaxxi faction, a mysterious faction that was both willing to work with players and further their agenda and loyalties to the Old Gods. Their culture is reflected in cards like Shadow Sensei and Jade Swarmer.

When questing in Der Jadewald, players are introduced to the Jinyu (Alliance) and Hozen (Horde) factions and learn a bit more about their culture. These factions are reflected in the Jinyu Waterspeaker and Hozen Healer.

Marin Noggenfogger rules both Gadgetzan in WoW and in Hearthstone, as the legendary Mayor Noggenfogger. Based on his quotes in the Gadgetzan Gazette, when he first became mayor the town was quite small and dusty, but is now a bustling city thanks to his hard work.

Blizzard

Gadgetzan: City of Opportunity

Listen up, pal. The great big city of Gadgetzan dat you see before you? It started out as a sleepy little desert town and a twinkle in da eye of a few ambitious folks eager to get their stubby little mitts on some coin. It only took a convenient, earth-shattering dragon attack to turn what were a few desert shanties into a bustling seaport, and dat brought in a new era of trade. With trade came money, and with money came power. Don’t fall asleep on me, kid, I’m tryin’ to make a point here!

Whether you’re here to see the sights, sample a few of Gadgetzan’s five star-fire restaurants, or to find a new friend to watch your back, you should know what’s really goin’ on behind da scenes. Walk with me, I’ll show you the sights. Da architecture in this burg is first class!

Who Runs the Streets?

Gadgetzan might look all excitin’ and cosmopoli-whateva on the outside—they have done a good job getting you tourists to visit, after all—but it’s also packed with hooligans, brawlers, and assassins down every alley, watching and lurking in the shadows. If the word on the street is true, you’ve made a bit of a name for yourself, and those unsavory characters are gonna want to make sure that you’re on their side or on no side at all, if you catch my drift. Better get to know da crime families that run the streets, and quick.

The Grimy Goons sure picked a flattering name for themselves. They’re your gangsters and weapon smugglers, eager to make their coin by equipping Gadgetzan with all sorts of untested and illegal weaponry. They’re easy to pick out of a crowd; you can usually smell ‘em before you see ‘em, but watch out for ill-fitting brown vests and garish orange ties. What they don’t have in brains, they make up with brawn.

Members of the Jade Lotus family excel in the ancient arts of stealth, assassination, and turning murlocs into finjas. Yeah, I said finjas. Don’t give me that look. I didn’t come up with that name. Rumor has it they’re meddling with some sort of ancestral juju and hitting the local art and relic exhibits—I don’t know how true that is, but I’ll tell you one thing: the statues outside their business are really creepy.

Need some mana quick? The Kabal got you covered. These crazy chemists control the illicit mana trade in Gadgetzan, and there’s never a shortage of magic-users looking for a little extra boost to their latest potent potable or kooky concoction. Just a warning: never drink what they offer you. You may up with a fuzzy coat of wool, or at the very least, a killer headache. Emphasis on the killer.

Kommentare

Kommentar von urielvazquez

on 2016-12-02T12:37:16-06:00

I need Blizzard to update this city for the next expansion-- if they did a South Seas based Expansion this could be a new Capital city, the other one being Kul Tiras. It would make me want to go back to Tanaris which I have only visited once since Cataclysm, only for the Legion pre-expansion event.

Kommentar von Sunreaver

on 2016-12-02T12:41:36-06:00

I'd love to see Gadgetzan and a few other cities get a significant size boost to give them more flavor. Obviously not to Stormwind levels, but I would think Gadgetzan, for example, could be doubled in size quite easily. Booty Bay seems like a much better design, flavor-wise - it just feels crowded... even if it's really not.

Kommentar von Mellro

on 2016-12-02T14:34:26-06:00

I think Hearthstone's version looks a lot more interesting. If only Blizzard could do another cataclysm style world change where they would update/flesh out smaller hubs like this.

Kommentar von Andrejoss

on 2016-12-02T15:07:14-06:00

It would be great if blizz made gadgetzan into what it is in hearthstone, wow is really missing a huge bustling real life-like city

Kommentar von Pentigan

on 2016-12-02T15:45:58-06:00

It would be great if blizz made gadgetzan into what it is in hearthstone, wow is really missing a huge bustling real life-like city

So basically a Suramar-scale city that doesn't require being in disguise?

Kommentar von Greenhooves

on 2016-12-02T19:09:12-06:00

It would be great if blizz made gadgetzan into what it is in hearthstone, wow is really missing a huge bustling real life-like city

So basically a Suramar-scale city that doesn't require being in disguise?

So very much, yes.

Kommentar von Funnypiggy

on 2016-12-02T19:49:13-06:00

nice i bought 50 packs :)

Kommentar von Tombsv

on 2016-12-02T20:36:29-06:00

Well, I hope that after we return from space and realize that we have freed the old gods, some really big changes happen to the world. There are so many round empty hills everywhere. So the old world would enjoy a bit of a update. A gigant tentacle that smashes down and breaks everything in Stormwind and Ogrimmar would be amazing. Forcing each side to re-locate.

Kommentar von WildmoonTheWolf

on 2016-12-03T01:27:12-06:00

Would like to see that little Rabbit guy in the game. They look so cute ^^

Kommentar von leowow

on 2016-12-03T03:58:24-06:00

A rabbit race could be possible a new race for Wow in the future.

Kommentar von Ydrisselle

on 2016-12-03T17:44:56-06:00

I simply want to see those murloc finjas :D

Kommentar von NavyPheonix

on 2016-12-03T19:56:02-06:00

A rabbit race could be possible a new race for Wow in the future.

They're called Virmin, and based on their in-lore intelligence level and the general distaste for most Pandaria content, I would say that it's extremely unlikely. Hozen and Jinyu would be the go-to new races based off of Pandaria content, and they still are highly unlikely.

Kommentar von Sevrin02

on 2016-12-04T18:46:11-06:00

Lol what? No, this wouldn't be a capital city, Undermine or Kezan would.

Kommentar von calicojack

on 2016-12-07T13:36:16-06:00

It would be great if blizz made gadgetzan into what it is in hearthstone, wow is really missing a huge bustling real life-like city

So basically a Suramar-scale city that doesn't require being in disguise?

Indeed. The website map shows the 'city' as being a small handful of extra buildings inside the current wall, and then a set of buildings inside an additional outer wall. Scale would be smaller than Bilgewater Harbour in Azshara, but with higher, multi-story buildings in the outer 'ring.' The space is there to do it now, might make a good "minor patch" content: add the bartender NPC to the main Gadgetzan inn, add the three mini-factions and a Black Market House NPC , add a small 'museum' , and perhaps a rotating daily quest aiding one of the three 'sub factions,' against a level-adjusting target . Huzzah! Minor content patch. Includes spare Hearthstone references , to nail the cross-platform advertisement home. No disruption of current questlines . Solid.

Kommentar von VasDrakken

on 2016-12-08T15:59:03-06:00

It might just be that people playing on slow connections needed an option to get the gigabytes of the content changes as a dvd rom disk, which might be why major changes to cities were in expansions. Most people in the USA have the ability to down load the updates so we may see things like changing the world map happen mid expansion.

That said there are two areas they need to update. Silvermoon City and Gadgetzan. The mean streets of Gadgetzan shows a great twist they can do with a major city that was always cross faction. That is where the old cross faction auction house used to be. Imagine they rework Gadgetzan into five faction hubs, the three cartels Hubs, an Alliance Hub, and Horde hub. Kinda like dalaran where you have the enclaves for horde and alliance, only with three more for the new factions. It would need alleyways behind the buildings. The purpose of Gadgetzan would have to be cross faction where instead of dealing with horde or alliance leaders you deal with the three faction leaders. You could be sent all over Azeroth, Outland, Draenor, looking for ingredents for potions, gadgets, and other random materials as quests that lead you to different areas of the game.